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In-Depth

2021 Trends to Watch: Marketing

How brands and properties manage the ‘phygital’ mix of activation in 2021 will be worth monitoring, as well as the wealth of opportunities now available on team uniforms.

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Precisely assessing prospects for the sports sponsorship business in 2021 would require exact knowledge of when fans will return. Absent that, marketers are looking to shift from a period where physical activation of sponsorships largely vanished, to a staged return, supported by an amalgam of experiential and digital support.

Momentum CEO Chris Weil termed that mix “phygital” some 13 years before the pandemic. After a year in which activation was forced to squeeze within the boundaries of a Zoom call, marketers are more readily accepting activation outside of venues and game telecasts and searching for that redefined “phygital” mix.

“We certainly don’t see 100% attendance returning soon,” said Nic Sulsky, president of daily fantasy site Monkey Knife Fight, which zigged as the market zagged last year, buying 10 top-tier team sponsorships. Accordingly, “what interests me most is the hybrid opportunity,” Sulsky said. “Athletes’ social and digital audiences are too big to ignore. I don’t have to worry about venue capacity or broadcast visibility much if Rob Gronkowski is wearing a Monkey Knife Fight T-shirt when he’s posting on Instagram.”

That notion of increased activation outside of venues is already a legacy of the pandemic. 

“There’s absolutely no reason why we can’t be an everyday fan destination,” said U.S. Soccer Federation CCO David Wright. “Evolving from an event-based property to a 365-day fan engagement platform is where every property is heading.” 

Added Charles Greenstein, Bank of America’s senior vice president of sponsorship marketing: “I wasn’t completely sold on [digital/social] before, but I am now. It will be a bigger part of our repertoire than ever moving forward.”

When fans do return, there are marketing questions on both the business-to-consumer and business-to-business sides. 

“Given the erratic scheduling of live events [in 2020] fan experience has to be a top priority for leagues and teams,” said Professional Fighters League CEO Peter Murray. “Eventually, there’ll be this overwhelming demand for live entertainment, which will recalibrate things.”

“I’m not sure if properties will have to cut ticket prices to get fans back, but they will have to show better value,” said Marc Bluestein, CEO of sponsorship agency Aquarius Sports & Entertainment. “From a sponsorship standpoint, that increased value is going to have to include more camera-visible assets, and you’ve already seen that across leagues.” 

Additional virtual and physical ad signage, introduced by every property during the pandemic, is now followed by a glut of uniform ads. Consequently, during a buyer’s market for sports marketing assets this year, there will be around 100 uniform “availabilities,” with each team insisting that it’s selling a seven-figure asset. Watch the dynamics in that market, not to mention the question of how much any stick-and-ball property wants to resemble NASCAR’s logo-palooza. 

“It’s going to get a little bit messier,” Greenstein said. “The question will be ‘how do you break through?’” 

With the pandemic canceling so many games and telecasts, sponsorship make-goods will be plaguing both the buy and sell side of the industry interminably. “Some teams will be feeling the effect for four or five years,’’ said Anheuser-Busch InBev sponsorship chief Nick Kelly, who will become president of the new Charlotte FC MLS franchise next month.  

Sponsorship research agency IEG estimates that $14 billion in U.S. sports and entertainment value has been or will need to be “made good” due to the pandemic. With travel and tourism brands representing 20% of the top 100 sponsorship spenders, their portion of the recovery will lag considerably.  

The widespread nature of the pandemic produced a surplus of patience in a business where the word “partnership” is thrown around like a T-shirt from last year’s promotion. This year will not see as much forgiveness, say many. “It will be a year when goodwill runs out for those who didn’t handle it well in 2020,” said Elizabeth Lindsey, Wasserman president of brands and properties.   

Added Tigris Sponsorship & Marketing President Matt Yonan: “Sponsors are going to start saying, ‘We won’t write that check.’ That was an anomaly last year, but now, a lot of budgets have been cut.”

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